Football has a funny way of turning universally held truisms on their head in an instant. Saturday afternoon was a case in point. For months, the German public and its media had revelled in the superlatives, revved up the hyperboles, ripped up the record books. The title seemed so deserved, so assured, so indisputable.

But then a few seconds on the Westfalenstadion pitch changed everything, when a razor-sharp intervention from Dortmund's Felipe Santana proved all assumptions wrong. Inexplicably, everything changed: Kevin Grosskreutz's village-idiot-bastard-son-of-Michael-Bolton-and-Rumpelstiltskin barnet – the 22-year-old had stopped going to the barber's shortly after Christmas, in anticipation of the championship – was not worthy of the "worst haircut in Bundesliga history" tag after all.

Fortunately for Borussia fans, Santana's misguided clipper action was the only less than perfect episode on a sunny day fit for a fairytale. In front of 80,000 expectant supporters, Jürgen Klopp's men brushed aside Nürnberg with two goals and reached the promised land of their seventh Meisterschaft courtesy of another classic Leverkusen collapse (a 2-0 defeat at Köln). Cue regulation beer-showers for the coach and various TV reporters, tears of joy (Nuri Sahin, Mats Hummels) and two weeks of "emergency rule" (club president Reinhard Rauball) in the city.

Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow. Uh-huh, that's what it is. This year. Two years ago, little but rich VfL Wolfsburg were the surprise winners, two years before that it had been Stuttgart's turn. But Dortmund, the youngest ever team to win the league, are something extra-special. "No disrespect to the guys from the 50s but in my view this is the biggest success in the history of the club," said Michael Zorc. The sporting director won the Champions League with Borussia as a player in 1997 but felt that this side had achieved more. "No one expected us to have a chance, let alone dominate the Bundesliga to such an extent," he said. "When we won previous titles, we were at least among the favourites."

It's worth remembering at this point that the club was nearly bankrupt around six years ago. Capacity crowds and their standing as one of Germany's best-supported sides still enable them to pay very decent wages but they'll frustrate many a modern football supporter who slaves over spreadsheets, trying to prove that a rival's net spend was at least 7.94% higher since 1973. The most expensive regular, the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, cost €4.75m (£4.2m).

Klopp, the architect of the amazing transformation from also-rans to champions in three years – Dortmund had finished 13th in the table before the 43-year-old took over in the summer of 2008 – was for once too exhausted to let himself go. "I thought it would feel better, more euphoric," he said, almost apologetically. "Perhaps the pressure on us was a little stronger than we were prepared to admit."

Dortmund have led the table since mid-October but a row of indifferent results in recent weeks had brought the prospect of failure into focus. It would have been a travesty, however, if meek Leverkusen or indeed Bayern had pipped Kloppo's disciples to the trophy. Borussia were by far the best, perhaps even the only true team of the season: a collective of humble, super-fit and very smart players who were prepared to leave their egos outside the dressing room. "This team is emblematic of the kind of paradigm shift in German football that the national team stands for," wrote Der Spiegel. "Young professionals, technically and tactically well educated, aware of their own strengths but never arrogant – Dortmund is like a miniature of the national side." The comparison is apt in another sense, too. Rarely was a squad so well liked by the whole of the country. The unusually generous and genuine congratulatory messages from various dignitaries proved as much.

Of course it will be difficult to defend the title while navigating the Champions League next year, especially in light of the likely departure of midfield maestro Nur Sahin who is about to defect to the dark side: Real Madrid are reportedly ready to trigger a €12m release clause. But it would be churlish to concentrate on the future prospects of the team at the expense of celebrating the thrill of the present. There will be plenty of time to worry over the summer.

It was a measure of Borussia's popularity that Bild, the high priests of the lowest common denominator, couldn't make up their mind on Saturday and Sunday: what was the bigger, more moving story, royal wedding or Dortmund's party? In a weird effort to serve everyone, the online version of the tabloid juxtaposed William and Kate's kiss with that of Klopp and Mrs Klopp, the reassuringly blond Ulla, then followed through by putting the family photo from Buckingham Palace next to a shot of the Borussia boys holding hands. It was unclear what all of that was supposed to mean, apart from one thing, perhaps. Turns out the Queen's much-criticised sponsorship deal with Chiquita Banana was actually right on the money. Just like Her Majesty's garb, this season's stars are all yellow.

Talking points

• By the time Schalke, Dortmund's arch-rivals, kicked off their match at Bayern on Saturday night, it couldn't really get much worse for the Royal Blues. But it did. Ralf Rangnick's side – ostensibly his best line-up – were quite possibly even more inept than they were at home against Manchester United last Tuesday and lucky to get away with a 4-1 defeat. Thanks to Hannover's 0-1 defeat at home to Gladbach earlier in the day, Bayern were able to reclaim third spot and revert to characteristic humility. "We won't give up that place now, that's for sure", said Thomas Müller, scorer of the second and fourth goals.

The emphatic win came in the wake of plenty of FC Hollywood-type behaviour. Arjen Robben had kicked off proceedings by implicitly criticising a lack of leadership in the side since the Louis Van Gaal-enforced departure of Mark van Bommel in January, only to be outdone by Bastian Schweinsteiger, who attacked a Sport-Bild journalist with the sort of language more readily found in Bierkeller toilets. "You're a liar, a pisser, an arsehole," Schweini told the offending scribe at a midweek press conference. His crime? He'd penned an article demeaning the midfielder as a "Chefchen" – a "little boss" without much standing in the dressing room.

Schweinstiger, like the rest of the side, played well enough to render that debate superfluous. The second half in the Allianz Arena was so uneventful, in fact, that vast sections of the ground had time to shout down anti-Manuel Neuer chants from a small band of hardcore supporters. The unusual intervention from the hitherto silent majority will have smoothed the keeper's path southwards; all that stands between the 25-year-old and his transfer to Bayern now is a rather hefty disagreement over price. A first offer in the region of €14m (£12.5m) was turned down flat by the S04 sporting director Horst Heldt, who described it as "totally unacceptable". Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is prepared to play the waiting game ("we have time until 31 August"), but his club's cause wasn't helped by honorary president Franz Beckenbauer, who cheerfully declared that he would spend "€50m" on Neuer. "Maybe he's willing to dip into his own savings," said administrative board member Helmut Markwort, more than a little miffed.

• Stuttgart, 2-1 winners at Hoffenheim are all but save from the drop. Lautern, who won their very own "final" against St Pauli on Friday night, have done enough already. Wolfsburg under Felix Magath show signs of life, too. The 2009 champions won 1-0 away to Bremen to inch closer to safety.

• Frankfurt, who were entertaining thoughts of the Europa League not so long ago notched up another defeat under Christoph Daum. "If we continue playing this badly, we don't have to worry – we'll go straight down", said defender Marco Russ after the 3-0 defeat at Mainz. A few hundred irate Eintracht supporters tried to get into the team bus when it returned on Saturday night, one plain-clothed policeman had to fire a warning shot to escape the angry mob. "Violence is never a solution and doesn't change anything on the pitch", said the beleaguered CEO, Heribert Bruchhagen. The latter part was true, in a very literal sense: Daum had to call off training on Sunday and Monday, as the police could not guarantee the players' safety.